Hipsters have children, tooDisapproving of white urban liberals can be a career for right-leaning sociologists. A decade or two ago, their story was that the American future lay in fast-growing exurban counties, with their cheap land and virtuous Republican voters. Now that many American cities have become the hot, hot, hot place for jobs and ambitions, the story has to be rewritten. “Are cities without children sustainable?” ask Joel Kotkin and Ali Modarres in the cult...

The left vs. minoritiesIf anyone wanted to pick a time and place where the political left’s avowed concern for minorities was definitively exposed as a fraud, it would be now — and the place would be New York City, where far left Mayor Bill de Blasio has launched an attack on charter schools, cutting their funding, among other things. These schools have given thousands of low income minority children their only shot at a decent education, which often means their onl...

Hillary said to be sick — probably of the mediaIt was back on Jan. 27, 1998, when Hillary Clinton first used the phrase “vast right-wing conspiracy” to describe the attacks on her husband. She was appearing with Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today,” the day after Bill Clinton had publicly stated: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” For Hillary, the Monica Lewinsky story was the last straw in what she firmly believed was a conservative conspiracy to get her husband. And...

Filing period highlights major political shiftLITTLE ROCK — With contested primaries for five statewide offices, two congressional seats and about two dozen legislative posts, Arkansas Republicans ended the filing period last week with a clear sign of how much the political landscape has changed in the state. Democrats, however, are hoping it’s a sign of the headaches and internal divisions to come for the GOP. By the time the one-week filing period for state and federal offices ended las...

Legislators want answers about interstate jamsLegislators are taking time out from their “private option” session this week to conduct a hearing on why parts of interstate highways 40 and 55 in eastern Arkansas got jammed for three days after a March 2 winter ice storm. Gov. Mike Beebe and others have criticized the storm response by the state Highway and Transportation Department, saying it was too slow in dispatching crews to clear those critical highways. Beebe called out the National ...

Wake up and smell the bacon...with a bacon appNow, I’ve got a perfect excuse to buy a smarter-than-me photo. Oscar Mayer says it has created a bacon-scented app for the iPhone, developed by the Madison-based company’s Institute for the Advancement of Bacon. The company says that to emit a small puff reminiscent of bacon, the user needs an external device that plugs into the headphone jack. The app itself produces the sound of bacon sizzling in a pan. Oscar Mayer says the aroma-producing d...

A trip to the Tolkien-verseHere’s something you may or may not know: “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien is not a trilogy despite the thousands of books and movie tickets sold that might imply otherwise. When “The Lord of the Rings” was being prepared for publication in 1950, Tolkien was thinking of it as a duology: that is, a book of two parts. The other is a book known as “The Simarillion,” which is sort of like The Old Testament of the Tolkien-verse. Tolkien’s ...

Hillary, Hitler and Cold War IIIn assessing the motives and actions of Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton compared them to Adolf Hitler's. Almost always a mistake. After 12 years in power, Hitler was dead, having slaughtered millions and conquered Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. And Putin? After 13 years in power, and facing a crisis in Ukraine, he directed his soldiers in the Crimea to take control of the small peninsula where Russia has berthed its Black Sea fleet sin...

Has U.S. Treasury become a piggy bank?Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people’s money.” Apparently what Thatcher failed to consider is that “pretty soon” becomes decades, when you can borrow or print it. Here in our country, the lion’s share of our federal budget goes for the entitlement programs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. When it comes to the balance or the rest of our b...

Now who belongs downtown?Many American cities now enjoy an amazing reversal of fortune. Once hollowed-out shells mainly for those too poor to move — or those so rich they didn’t have to deal with the poor — cities are again filling up with educated and aspiring young people. They are flooding into Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and other places once given up for dead. The influx of newcomers with money has raised housing prices and property taxes for many longtime re...

Uprooting Obamacare with better ideasAs a child, I was attracted to anything that dealt with medicine. Many stories featured Johns Hopkins Hospital, and eventually I was privileged to spend 36 years at Johns Hopkins working with brilliant and caring colleagues who dedicated their lives to the art and science of healing. After a storybook career that included thousands of operations and many sleepless nights, I looked forward to retirement, thinking it would be relaxing. However, ...

Letter to the editor (March 5, 2014)Liberty and justice for all? We see it with regularity. Someone who is well connected and has a reputation within a community goes free while anyone else would be indicted, fined and imprisoned. Once again we see this occur with the misdemeanor trial of a Kennedy. Admittedly, her father was a beloved person. Robert Kennedy did more in the sixties to effect civil rights and equality under the law than anyone has done since Abraham Lincoln. John...

Letter to the editor (March 5, 2014)Tommy Jackson’s column on Brad Paisley I too loved that song, although I didn’t know who Brad Paisley was. I thought paisley was a psychedelic fabric pattern, and sort of a weird name for a country singer. I lived the life of the narrative with one exception. I was five when my dad died and my mother never re-married, not fun in 1950. About two decades ago, I worked in Dallas one summer on a hail storm. My 79 Olds radio would not work, but the...

Majestic fire could be catalyst for revitalization of resort cityMy friend Rex Nelson wrote a piece titled “The Shame of Hot Springs” and posted it on his blog, www.rexnelsonsouthernfried.com, on Feb. 21. In it he decried the deterioration of downtown Hot Springs, symbolized by the nailing of plywood over the windows of the old Majestic Hotel on Park Avenue. A week later the hotel burned down. That’s one way to end a historic preservation debate. I have no reason to believe that Rex’s article, or reaction t...

Private option opponents seek exit planLITTLE ROCK — Heading into this year’s legislative session, opponents of Arkansas’ compromise Medicaid expansion vowed to push for an exit plan for a program they see as no different from the law they have been deriding simply as “Obamcare.” Now, they may be the ones in need of an exit strategy. With the impasse over Arkansas’ “private option” heading into its third week, opponents of the plan to use federal Medicaid funds to purchase insuranc...

Should states amend the Constitution?Washington, D.C., isn’t reforming itself, so there’s a movement to have the states do it by amending the Constitution through a provision that has never been used in American history. Article V of the Constitution makes it possible to amend that document in two ways. First, two-thirds of both houses of Congress can propose an amendment that then must be ratified by three-fourths of the states. That’s how all current 27 amendments have been pas...

Man wakes up in body bag at funeral homeWorkers at a Mississippi funeral home said they found a man alive and kicking when they opened a body bag. Holmes County Coroner Dexter Howard called it a miracle that Walter Williams, 78, is alive. The coroner was called to Williams’ home in Lexington, a community north of Jackson, where family members believed he had died. Howard said Williams had no pulse and was pronounced dead Wednesday at 9 p.m. Early Thursday, workers at Porter and Sons...

A fire, an iceberg and 2 downed shipsThis is a space where I normally share several bite-sized facts and stories I’ve stumbled across while reading books or browsing the Internet. I call them “Kind of Interesting” facts, but this week I believe I have something “very” interesting. So much so, I’ve dedicated this entire column to this story alone. How Artagaveytia got his sea legs I don’t believe in luck, but every now and then probability collides with human nature to create some...

Bids open for Connecting ArkansasLITTLE ROCK —Bid The largest highway construction program in state history got off to a good start when the Highway Commission opened bids for a $52.7 million project in northwest Arkansas. The project is the next phase in the Bella Vista bypass. It will relieve congestion in that city and eventually become part of the route of Interstate 49 between Canada and New Orleans. It’s the first project in the Connecting Arkansas Program (CAP), which ...

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State Capitol Week in ReviewThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Protecting those who protect usLITTLE ROCK — Last weekend, I participated in my final winter meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington, D.C. These meetings allow governors to come together to share ideas and discuss issues that our states face collectively. As you might expect, other governors approached me about the ground we have broken on health care in Arkansas, both with our Payment Improvement Initiative and with the Arkansas Private Option. Those di...